| May 4, 2005 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 24, 1426 |
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Acts of desperation?
Tragedy in Lahore
FINALLY, the recommendations made by the Mushahid panel and adopted by the parliamentary committee on Balochistan have been made public. If implemented, the committee’s proposals could turn out to be a frame of reference for the future. The recommendations are comprehensive and focus essentially on the socio-economic side of the problem the committee was asked to study and report on. Those charged with coming up with a formula for sorting things out in Balochistan, no doubt, took a long time to finish their job. But now that we have it we can say that it was done in a thorough manner. Baloch employment rights, royalty on gas within a fixed period, and a well-deserved nine billion rupee financial package for Gwadar, Sibi and Quetta form the core of what is meant to be a plan of action. Despite the boycott of the committee by the Baloch nationalist parties, the recommendations are based on a consensus, for those who attended Monday’s crucial meeting included the Murree, Bugti, Mengal, JUI and MMA members of the committee. This shows that the committee demonstrated a unity of purpose and rose above partisan considerations to arrive at a consensus for the good of what indeed is the country’s largest province territorially.
For the present, these may be only recommendations, but since they come from a committee headed by a key member of the ruling Muslim League, there is obviously good reason to believe that the government will accept the proposals and implement them. Given that the government has been focusing a great deal lately on Balochistan’s development, the parliamentary committee’s recommendations are in accord with its policy. The committee’s proposals will plough more money into Balochistan because this funding is in addition to the finances marked for the on-going mega projects in the province. These projects include the Gwadar port’s second phase, the coastal highway, the Mirani dam and the copper and zinc mining projects. The cash inflow will directly benefit the people, because what the committee has done in the case of these projects is to safeguard Baloch interests in matters of employment. In case of Gwadar, the first preference will go to the locals, next to the people of Makran and then to those from other parts of the province. Very significantly, and rightly, the committee recommends the shifting of the headquarters of the Gwadar Port Authority from Karachi to the port itself which one day will become a major point of entry and exit for the country’s trade as well as for that of Central Asia and China.
The question of provincial autonomy was not part of the Mushahid committee’s terms of reference, for it is the other sub-committee, headed by Senator Wasim Sajjad, which is dealing with the issue. But the question here is more ticklish. Changes in the quantum of autonomy will involve amendments in the Constitution and will call for careful deliberations by law-makers, constitutional experts outside parliament and the media. Because of the sensitivity of its task, the committee is understandably divided over the question of partly or fully abolishing the concurrent list. Obviously, a change in constitutional clauses relating to provincial autonomy for Balochistan will have an impact on the federation’s other constituent units. This could prove highly controversial. For that reason, one would emphasize the need for a consensus among all the four constituent units and the federal government, though a case could perhaps be made for having Balochistan-specific clauses.
THREE ghastly murders —all committed by fathers killing their children — have taken place in Karachi over a span of 11 days, a statistic that is as alarming as it is indicative of certain social realities. The first incident on April 24 involved a man who killed his four sons and wife in the middle of the night in his home. While the unemployed man had been acting strangely for some time, police say that it was a calculated crime and does not have anything to do with the deranged state of mind of the man. The second incident took place a day later when an unemployed man killed his seven-year-old daughter, citing his inability to provide for her as the reason that led him to murder her. And then on Monday, yet another unemployed man stabbed his two daughters to death before turning himself over to the police. His distraught wife claims that her husband, who rarely watched TV, took a sudden interest in the TV news on the April 24 murder incident, which leads one to believe that he may have been influenced by that news item. While it is difficult to gauge the degree of each murderer’s state of mind at the time of the crime, the fact that all three were unemployed indicates the level of frustration they were experiencing that led them to commit such violent acts.
These incidents are a grim reminder of what is going on in society. One had become used to reading about people taking their own lives because they could not get jobs, but it is distressing to read about men killing their own children ostensibly for the same reason. One hopes that the media attention around these occurrences does not lead to more such crimes or people pleading insanity as a ground for lighter punishments. While the government claims that the country has witnessed an economic turnaround, horrifying incidents like these prove that the government has failed to control prices or create jobs. They need to seriously address the problem of poverty which leads men and women to commit acts that are largely the result of despair and frustration.
BLASTS caused by gas cylinder explosions at an illegally operated ice cream factory in a Lahore suburb have resulted in the tragic death of at least 29 people, among them women and children. The accident occurred at around 3.30 on Tuesday morning in the basement of an apartment building where the factory in question had been set up. The police have ruled out sabotage, and emergency relief workers fear the death toll could mount as they dig through rubble for possible survivors. Edhi health-care workers busy with relief work at the site, however, said there was little hope of finding any more survivors in the debris. This latest tragedy has sent shock waves throughout the city, where similar accidents in illegally operated factories in residential areas have claimed dozens of lives over the past year or so. Blasts at a chemical factory on Bund Road last Thursday created much panic among area residents, leaving two people missing, who are now presumed dead.
The existence of factories in residential quarters of big cities, in Lahore, Karachi and elsewhere in the country, has proved to be a recipe for disaster time and again. Surely, these factories are not there without the knowledge of the civic and building control authorities concerned. It is a sorry commentary on the functioning of the city district governments, especially in big cities where these do exist, that no attention has been paid to this irregularity in the use of residential buildings. The question is: how many more lives can we afford to lose because of sheer apathy on the part of officialdom? A concerted effort is needed by both citizens and rights groups to pressure the government, requiring it to shut down all illegal factories in residential areas. Life is the most basic of human rights; no vested interest can be allowed to take it away with impunity.
